Math Mentor Text - a new linky party

This is my first post linking up with Collaboration Cuties. I love using text in all areas I teach. So I am sharing a project my kindergarten kiddos completed this past week.

We read 10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston, illustrated by Rich Deas. This is a hilarious book about 10 fat and silly turkeys. One by one they do something more and more crazy and fall of the fence. In the end they are all off the fence and the fence is broken. Those rowdy turkeys then make their way into a tree!

My kiddos LOVED this book and there was a lot of discussion going on about how crazy those turkeys were. When I told them we were going to make our own ten fat turkeys they were ecstatic. In October we read the poem 5 Little Pumpkins and illustrated the pumpkins on a gate. They loved doing that so they were excited to do turkeys. We started the lesson like we do all our directed art lessons. I had them draw a fence first. Then I told them they need to add 10 turkeys, some on the fence and some in front of the fence on the ground. I taught them how to make turkeys using circles and ovals. We drew our first turkey together - they chose where to place it. After talking it over we realized we still need 9 more, so they went back and added 9 more turkeys. We also filled in a writing form to show how many turkeys where on the fence and how many on the ground. 

I also found a cute YouTube video of the story. They loved the book so much I think we may watch it Tuesday and write about what happened to the turkeys once they got in the tree!

Please share any other ideas you have for this book or any other books!!

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check out other Mentor Text over at Collaboration Cuties!

Five For Friday!

Happy Friday! Being out a day this week has really thrown me off. I have been a day behind all week and my post this week proves it! I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of some of our projects this week but I promise to come back and add them ASAP! 

This week we have been doing a lot of great creepy, crawly, and spooky things the past two weeks and I have picked some of my favorites to share with you all this week. A lot of the ideas/lessons came from Pinterest. (See my Kindergarten Creepy & Spooky Board Here.)

Night Animals

To begin our creepy and spooky unit we began with some not so creepy or spooky night animals. I even learned something new - animals that are awake mostly during the day are called diurnal. We played a game (from A Place Called Kindergarten) using a double Venn Diagram to sort different animals. Then we took a deeper look at bats and owls. We read fiction and nonfiction books as well as watched the Reading Rainbow about Stellaluna, which had some fantastic bat facts.

 Bat Glyphs from the book Critical Thinking Glyphs (Teacher Created Resources) 

Torn Paper Ows (from here)

 Go Away Big Green Monster

I was actually out with the lovely stomach flu and my sub did this with me kids. They read the book and then did a directed art project to create their very own Big Green Monsters. I also found (from where I don't know) a Flipchart for my Promethean Board with this story. As the kiddos retold the story using the Promethean Board, they drew their version of the monster. I have since seen a few different versions of this activity that are really cute and have them create the monster as you read the book the first time and not showing the pictures. I have put that in my file to try next year!

 The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything

For this lesson we read the book and talk about all the sounds that the old lady heard. I teach them the word onomatopoeia and we make a list of the words from the story. My kids also thought of their own words so we added them to the list. If they had their way, the scarecrow would have been covered but it was time for lunch  so we had to stop! (I got the idea for the cute anchor chart from Welcome to Room 36.) I also have a Promethean Board  Flipchart called The Strange Visitor. It is very similar to this book so we make a Venn Diagram of the two.

 Inside a House That is Haunted

This is one of those times where I had a cute activity and needed a book to go with it. In this book, a kid dressed as Frankenstein scares all the residents in the haunted house. Since I found this very cute directed art idea from here I though, why not! I also found a video of the song Monster Mash on YouTube that shows the mad scientist bringing Frankenstein to life. The kids LOVED it!

I saved the very best for last! I have to brag on my wonderful school. This week is Red Ribbon Week. Each year the third grade students are able to apply to win the Red Ribbon Week Award by sending in proposals for a service project. The staff votes on the service projects submitted to choose a winner. This year our service project was "A March for Super E" to support a former student of ours that was diagnosed with cancer last year (& in remission now!!!) to help cove expenses. Students made donations to the Super E Fund in order to participate in the march. If they sent in $5 or more, they could bring and wear a cape as we marched. We had set a goal of $1500 but our FABULOUS students raised OVER $3000!!!!!! I am so proud of our students and their families for donating so much to such a great cause! 

Don't forget to check out the other Five for Friday posts at Doodle Bugs Teaching!

(I edited my photos on piZap.com)